Renewables: An Old Rock Could Lead To 'Next Generation' Solar Cells

"After a 170-year delay, the discovery of a strange, metallic-looking rock found in the Ural Mountains in Russia in 1839 has ignited a global technology race for a cheaper, more efficient solar cell. It could seriously disrupt the world's solar market, currently dominated by China.

The features of the rock led to the understanding that there was not a particular mineral involved, but a class of minerals that share a common crystalline structure of cubes and diamondlike shapes. The structure was named for Lev Perovski, a Russian mineral expert who first studied it. He died in 1856. Later, researchers found that mineral deposits containing perovskite structures were cheap and abundant throughout the world.

But scientists weren't sure what to do with them until 2009, when a Japanese researcher found that perovskite could absorb sunlight and turn it into electricity. It was remarkably similar to prepared silicon cells. Only perovskite cells selected stronger photons of sunlight and promised to be much cheaper to prepare than silicon cells, which require 14 steps to manufacture, including preparations requiring the use of high heat, expensive automation and clean rooms."

John Fialka reports for ClimateWire April 24, 2017.

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